IAFE 5k

This race, if you want to call it that, I do every year at the International Association of Fairs and Expos trade show that my work exhibits in Las Vegas. This race consists of 10-15 people doing a 1 mile walk and 5-10 people doing the 5k. The people that do the run are the people you would typically see starting in the back of a regular 5k race. Last year I won this race so I was back to defend my title. Haha. There is one guy that beat me the first year I did it, I beat him last year and this year...he won. I just did not have it again. I looked up the elevation differences: Des Moines 900ft, Las Vegas 2,000ft. That slight difference I can really feel when I am running. This year I ran 2 miles before the race even started because they don't warm up. Well, they do, you run down the hall of the conference space and group stretch. Not enough for someone looking to get out and get moving right away. The course is around Bally's. Some areas are scary because we are running through the drop off/pick up area and the service parking lot where there are lots of trucks. All 7 of us lined up to go. Dudes #1 and #2 appear to be a father and son pair and they take off first. Last year Dude #1 took off way to fast and so I was not worried about him being in front of me. Dude #3, the winner, follows close behind those 2. I knew I was going to have to keep him in my sights, but I was not wanting to start out that fast. So I was 5th, with Dude #4 in front of me. He was a bit older and wasn't to worried about him. We do 3 laps. Lap number one - I passed Dude #4 at about a half mile. Dude #3 gets into first after about 3/4 mile. I could see dudes #1 and #2 losing their form so I knew they had started to fast and I would soon catch them. I passed Dude #1 at about .9 miles. I passed Dude #2 just after mile one. Now I was feeling tired but did not know why. I think it has to be the elevation changed because I felt the exact same way last year. After about 1.25 miles, Dude #3 was almost a 1/4 mile ahead of me so I had to pick up the pace. I couldn't I tried, but I think my effort to go 10 seconds faster/mile was so much more work than just running at my pace. after 2 miles he was way to far ahead of me to catch him so I just tried to finish strong. We had dominated everyone else by a good 5 min. I really noticed my long training has hurt my short fast races. I need to get some speed work going. I did run the next 2 days as well for a total of about 15 miles for 3 days. My foot started hurting on the last day so I took Wednesday off and Thursday was my travel day back so I did not workout. I am thinking I will sit on the trainer tonight. I don't want to injure my foot again, especially now when there is no need to push myself. I have moved my kickoff starting day from January to December because I eat to much and need to get back into working out. I don't think I am going to go full blown into triathlon training. I am going to try to do some different stuff so I am not getting burnt out.

Equalizer Race Report

This weekend was great. Friday night I attended the prerace dinner. A few people showed up, but it was very fun to hear about other people's races and to just meet some pretty awesome people. Saturday started off to appear to be a gorgeous day until you stepped out from behind the wall and felt the wind. wow, that was cold. I arrived at Gray's Lake and setup my pit area. Basically I just dumped my bag onto the ground. It worked. We started at 8am. I felt really good for the first hour. Easily maintaining a 9:30 pace. 5.733 miles in 53 min. Hour 2 went by pretty quick also and still feeling good, but can tell I needed to eat more. Mile 12 I started to get tired. I grabbed the sport beans and tried to get them down. They tasted really good, but they weren't enough. When I came back around on mile 14, my friends had arrived and asked if I wanted a beer. Yes I do, but probably should wait. So my next time around, they had a beer and an egg sandwich ready for me. Holy cow. That sandwich was so awesome and saved my day. I ate another around mile 20 and it carried me through to the end. I combined my egg sandwich with a gel and water every lap. I finally felt good. At about 5 hours and 25 min, I was at lap 16. I really wanted to get in one more plus some short loops. I put my head down and didn't walk. I finished lap 17 in 20 min and then started the shorter 1/4 mile loops. At the start of lap 5 of the short laps, I figured this was going to be the last one and took it easy. On my way back in, I realized I could get one more in if I hurried. So I pulled out one more short loop to finish with 33.99 miles in 6 hours. The day went so fast. Egg Sandwiches are awesome! One friend and myself finished with 33.99 miles for the 2nd longest actual runs for the 6 hour race. A 69 year old man ran over 36 miles. Makes me feel worthless, lol. After the equalizer, I ended up with a 3rd place finish. It was a great experience and if I am still insane next year, might consider it again. NOT the 24 hour race. I will need to be on more drugs to do that race. As of today I feel great and finally going to workout tonight. I took Monday and Tuesday off to finish some weatherizing stuff to my house and last night spent the evening with Rob. It was great, but I am starting to feel lazy so heading to the gym for a little eliptical and probably shoot around. I still have a few blisters on my feet that are tender, but they are much better today. I also have decided to take November and December easy and regroup my thoughts and goals. I need to take some time off of triathlon as I feel like I am getting burnt out on the training. I am going to try to find a league or something to do over the winter to mix things up. Hopefully in the next couple months I can figure out my race schedule. Probably will start up tri training again in January.

Equalizer Run Plan

I have been unusally slow about getting my race stategy laid out for this weekend and I am not sure why. You would think with such a long race that I would be paying more attention to it. I think the weather changing, being busy at work and trying to get the house winterized have kept me distracted. This morning I have finally put my plans on paper.

Thursday:
Rest, start hydrating. Foods: carbs and protein. Water aerobics, stretch. Good night sleep tonight

Friday:
Stay off feet as much as possible, hydrate all day. Big breakfast and taper meals throughout day. 5:30pm is the prerace meal. Keep it light and stick with the pasta and avoid heavy fiber foods. Water is my friend. Short run and lots of stretching. Get to bed at regular time around 10pm.

Saturday
6:00am: Wake and eat breakfast: Cliff bar (220) with water, get dressed and start slowly on the baby food. Shooting to eat 3 jars by 7 (370 calories total), gather rest of equipment, load car and chill until 7. Pee
7:15: Leave for race, eat 1 gel with water on way to race
7:35ish: arrive at race site, pee, set up “pit” area
7:50: 1 gel with water
7:55: pee
7:58: strip off extra clothes
8:00: Race start – Run

During race: 10-12 oz powerade, 1 gel with 6 oz water and salt tablet – each hour, aleve as needed

I have learned a lot from the Ironman about my feet. I will have them taped up and properly bandaided to start with instead of waiting until I have run 13 miles and severe blisters have formed.
I am excited to get out and race, but also nervous because I haven’t gotten near as much running in as I would have liked. I ran 3 miles on Tuesday and my upper back was stiff Wednesday. I am going to be so sore after this race, but it will be worth it. I hope the rest of my body holds up as I have developed a few achy areas from working

Final week before the Equalizer

Final week going into the Equalizer run on Saturday. The weather looks nice but the temperature is border line right now on what I want to wear. Right now I am going to have to wear pants over shorts. Didn't want to do that, but anything under 40 degrees I decided was to cold for shorts. Also, I don't feel ready. I haven't ran much in the past 2 weeks because of work and this week I can't really run since it is taper week plus I have a million and a half things to get done at my house before it gets to cold out. Friday is the prerace dinner. Kind of weird to me because who wants to eat a huge meal the night before you have to run that far. It should be on Thursday night. I probably won't eat much there, but hey, it is included in the race fee. This week I am going to try to run 3-4 days 2-4 miles just to get my body loosened up and use to running again. And start drinking water, but not as much as I drank before the Ironman. Holy crap, I do not want to have to pee that much again.

Chrissie Wellington = Awesome

A very busy work week has kept me from my daily triathlon reading, but I finally have had a chance to read up on this past weekends Ironman Championships. I knew Chrissie had won the women's, but didn't hear anything other than that. She is awesome. I would love to train or drive a car beside her while she trains for an entire build cycle just to see what kind of workouts she does. Great Job Chrissie. Back to work for me.

Equalizer Run

Training for essentially an ultramarathon hurts. Why would anyone train for just a marathon? To much running, lol. The last couple weeks I have been running about 4 days a week with 2 of those days 5 miles, one day 10-12, and a long run of 14-18 miles. My IM training was not this, but I think it helped me a lot that I could spread out my run days more and extend my aerobic run with a bike effort. I have not been on my bike in about a month. I don't ride outside in the cold mostly because I just don't have the gear to and I have been super lazy about putting it on the trainer. I have gone to a couple spin classes and water aerobics to fill in my "extra" training time. This week I will be at work for about 12 hours a day because I have a project due next week. It sucks because I really need this week to get a final good workout week before my race next Saturday. On top of it all, I am sick. Sunday I ran 18 miles and came home and didn't do anything the rest of the day. I am pretty sure that is when I started getting sick. I had no energy and later that evening I had to blow my nose all the time. Yesterday I could start feeling it in my face and head. It's all in my sinuses. Great. I hope it doesn't turn into an infection. I bought sinus med this morning and will pop those pills all day. It actually gets worse at night because I am laying down and it all runs into my head. So I will continue sucking down water and pills. I am also pretty sure that when I was walking through the skywalk into work, I had snot just about ready to drip from my nose...Nice.

My New Bike!!!!!

Hahaha...Just kidding, but Man I would love to have this bike.

Product Trial

Prior to IMKY, I received an email to join this pain management focus group. This was during IM week which turned out to be this group giving our feedback on several pain reliever products. Everything from if we would use it to the labeling. Since then, I have received another email asking if I wanted to actually try out these products. Of course, why not. I received the products in the mail yesterday. 5 items: roll on, topical cream, muscle spray, joint spray, and 2 heat pads. I have to basically try out one product everyday for the next week. I used the roll on last night after my run. I thought that would be the best for the "pain" I had. My hamstrings were achy and figured I could really rub this is with the roll on. I opened the cap and started rolling. It sucked, nothing was rolling on. Very little at first then nothing. So I kind of shook the bottle. The roll ball got stuck then finally it loosened up and it worked, but quit shortly after again. I rolled it on my quads, hamstrings and knees. Nothing. Is this working. I sat there for about 2 min and finally I could feel it working. Mostly it was just burning my skin. I waited about an hour and I couldn't feel it doing anything so I jumped in the shower to rinse it off. Holy $h!t. It was burning. I used soap trying to wash it off, but nothing. I got out, dried off and it was better, but for the next hour it was burning so bad. OK, bad start here. When the burning sensation stopped, it actually felt good. Probably going to try out the joint spray. Not really sure how a topical spray can work on joints, but its free to try.

Equalizer Run

Ok, I figured since I am already insane, why not do something else insane to wrap up the year? I signed up for the Equalizer run in Des Moines. I have not heard of this before, but a fellow triathlete directed me at it. It is a running race and you do ~2 mile laps for either 6 or 24 hours. At the end, they count up your laps and convert to miles. Next they take your actual miles and multiply it by an "equalizer" number to get the overall winner. This is to eliminate gender and age advantage/disadvantage. I think it is a load of crap, lol. Anyway. I am entered into the 6 hour category. The 24 hour race does NOT appeal to me even in the slightest. Also, how often can you decide to run a 30+ mile race 6 weeks out? Um...very little to never. I would never train just for this race and you have to be insane to do that. Ok, it is just like training for a marathon, but still. I really like the "format" of this race because it is exactly how I have been training, for time and not distance. I don't have to run fast, I just have to try to keep running as long as I can and minimize walking. Sound familiar? Exactly my Ironman marathon strategy. On the entry form, it asks how many miles do you expect to finish. I put down 30 figuring: 6 hours/a 12 min/mile pace = 30 miles. The only results I could find were from 2006. Not sure if they just aren't out there or if they have not done this race since 2006. The winner ran a little over 35 miles in '06 and 36 in '05. It should be exciting. I guess I have to go out and buy more gels. Yippee.

Body, are you listening to me?

The last 2 weeks have been really weird. After the Ironman, I felt great and ready to start working out again. I took the rest of the week off and managed to not do anything triathlon related for all but one 45 min bike ride. I cleaned and cleaned. My house was disgusting. You never realize how gross it is until you actually clean it. Tuesday the 8th I decided I would start getting back into it. I ran for 30 min Tuesday after a long time spent at the grocery store. Geez. Wednesday, I went to the pool thinking I was going to get to swim. Nope, it still wasn't open so I lifted for 45 min and went home and biked for 45 min. Thursday I ran for 40 min. I was exhausted on Friday. My legs were achy and I just didn't have any energy. Saturday I also took off because I drank a little to much for the Iowa/Iowa State game and slept the rest of the day. Sunday I managed to do some stuff around the yard and mow. I played 2 softball games that night. I had to do a lot of sprinting that night because I had a good hitter behind me. Monday came and I could feel my legs were not use to that. Stupid me, thinking my body was ready for a little more intensity, went to a spin class. Wrong idea. I got about 5 min into it and my legs were not having it. I did the class about about 25% since that was all my legs could handle. Oh and I did this after I had lifted for 30 min. Good work Kel. After spin class I went home and walked my dog. That felt good to do. Loosened my legs up. Tuesday I went for a 5 mile run which normally takes me 40-45 min took me 50 min plus my 5 min cool down walk. Augh. I was not breathing hard at all, my body just did not want to go. So that brings me to tonight. I am planning on trying to go swimming. If I feel good I will do some laps since I have not been in the pool since IMKY. When I feel tired I will jump into the hot tub :) There is a yoga class at 630 that I am planning on hanging around for so I will probably lift a little bit before then. Tomorrow night, not doing anything. Its really weird how I feel ready to go and feel like I could pick up with my normal routine, until I actually start doing something then my body just shuts down and refuses to work. Guess they were right that it takes 6 weeks to fully recover from an Ironman. Hopefully by then I will have a little bit more of an idea of how I want to go into my training for the off season. My idea of my goal for next year would be to get my half ironman time to 5 hours and to qualify for nationals. This is going to take a lot of hard work, but I think it is a reasonable goal that will really push myself to see what I can do. My goal race I guess would be the Pigman half which is a qualifier for the Long Course nationals in September. I have a list of what I feel I need to work on the most over the winter and have read several good articles about off season training that I think I am going to use the winter months for speed work and then in the spring start building the endurance to go along with my already found speed :)

Ironman Louisville Race Report

Sunday at 3am: Wake up because of some stupid girls in the hall. Kind of wanted to punch them in the head. Tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't so I got up and started eating. Cliff bar down. Awesome. I always have trouble eating solid foods before a race. 1 packet of instant oatmeal, went down a little harder. Now onto the baby food. 4 jars of baby food = 200 calories. Total breakfast = 570 calories and 16 oz of water. Cover myself in sunscreen and get dressed. Choice of clothing: tri shorts and tri rib top. Exacty clothes I wore for my very first triathlon 2 years and 1 week ago. I chose the tri shorts because bike shorts were to bulky for me. I always trained in tri shorts or just plain shorts on short rides. I double check my bag and I am out the door at 4:20am. I am way ahead of schedule now because I woke up an hour early.
4:40am I get to transition and was pleasantly surprised that we could already get in. It was not suppose to open until 5. First action was to pump up my tires. I ask a girl next to me where the pumps were and she said you had to bring your own. What? That is crap. You can't put a pump in your morning bag or leave it anywhere so how was that going to be possible for me since I didn't have anyone to give it to either. How dumb. I managed to borrow one from another girl nearby. Ok that is done, water bottle full, spare kit on bike, bento box with nutrition. I am ready. Stop at the potty before leaving transition, came out and guess what I see. The bike pumps. Not only are there bike pumps, but they have someone do it for you.
5am: walk to swim start that is .75 miles down the road. It was kind of scary because there wasn't many lights, but it was better that 3000 of my workout partners for the day were also heading that way. I get to the start, get body marked (almost forgot) and got in line. I wasn't to far back. Within 500 people of the front. 5:20 I sit and wait. People walking by thought the line should be ending soon. Nope, sorry, you guys have a long ways to go yet. Port-a-potty line got long fast so I decided to go. 6:30 came and I needed to pee again. I headed towards the bathrooms when the line started moving. Crap, I didn't want to lose my spot or lose my bag so I started jogging back to the line. The guy in front of me had grabbed my bag, thank goodness, so I didn't lose my spot. I got in line, but still had to pee soooooooo bad. At this time the line kept slowly inching forward so I could never relax to pee. 6:40ish, the first national anthem was played. Right after, the 2nd one was sung. Hmmm...is this necessary. After they were done, the bugle player played the little "tune" that is played before the start of the Kentucky Derby. That was neat. About 2 seconds after, the rest of the pros jumped in the water and at 6:50 they were off. They now started filing us down the ramp to the docks. I had to get rid of my morning clothes which sucked because I was cold and still had to pee. At this time it was getting very painful. I got my goggles on and soon enough, it was 7 and people were jumping off the dock. They split the line into 2 to get people into the water faster. They said one dock didn't have an advantage over the other. That was crap because I had swam for a good 15 seconds before I even got to the 2nd dock. Oh well, it was 15 seconds, lol. So I get to the "line split" and they are yelling at us to hurry and run down to the dock. Holy crap, I am going to slip and fall before I even get going. Well I made it to the dock and jump in. I did a scissor kick so my shorts didn't ride up and held onto my goggles. My shorts rolled up a little bit and my cap slid up a bit, but all in all, I was in the water and swimming and still having to pee more than anything else in the world. We had a short up stream swim. I don't tie my shorts in a race because it always ended up being a pain when I had to stop and pee, but I wish that I would have because with the combination of my stroke pushing water down my body and the current, the tops were catching water. Great, I am swimming with a parachute. Everyone else was to the left so I stayed to the right side of the channel. No draft, but I also wasn't getting swam over the top of. Ok I was, but I am telling myself it would have been worse on the other side. I am about 30 min into the swim now, still having to pee, it hurts. My goggles start fogging up. Awesome. I keep swimming. I see the turn buoy and also what appears to be someone walking? Sure enough, I put my foot down and I could stand. First thing, I pee and pee and pee. Oh my gosh, that was the most awesome thing ever. I clear my goggles and do a little bit of walking and then jump back in. The rest was pretty uneventful except I got kicked in the stomach and elbowed in the eye. I get to the swim finish and climb out of the water.
Swim time: 1:38:59 Rank: 1961
Goal time: 1:45
I walk and grab a water. I jogged the rest as my body wanted to get going. I got my bike gear bag and head for the tent. The day prior we dropped off our bikes and gear bags. Each participant got a volunteer to "show" them around transition. They showed you were your bike was, your gear bag, the potties and which tent you were suppose to go into. Now during the race there was a guy standing by the tents saying men here, women here. I ran around to the other tent, get in there and sit down. Some random guy comes in and is like, where am I suppose to go? Haha, yeah right, he just wanted to see all the naked women. I put on my shoes, helmet, sunglasses, race belt and my "arm warmers" (tip for those who don't already know this: Since I didn't have anyone else with me to throw my gear to, Everything had to be replaceable, which means my arm warmers. I took a pair of mens tube socks, cut off the toes and used those, works great). I didn't have a volunteer to help me with my bag like others say, but there were people in there. I started putting my stuff in my bag and the woman was like I will get it. So I left it and and headed for the potty. Wow, I have to pee a lot. I run to my bike and I am off.
T1: 6:17
I feel good. It was a gorgeous day and I was having fun. Bike was flat for about the first 10 miles then the hills started. I don't remember much for the next 5 miles. Mile 15 was the out and back section. It was basically 2 mountains. You went down one huge hill and climbed up a second and then turned around and did it again. They weren't steep, but very long. It was a cool section because the trees lined the road and created a tunnel. After that section, there was another short 5 mile section until the start of the loop. I don't remember much other than thinking, I wish I was at mile 60 and not 30. I get to mile 40 and I was starting to lose energy. Up to this point I was eating a gel every 30 min and a salt tab every 30 min opposite the gel and drinking water and a few sips of gatorade. I downed 2 gels. Stomach started getting icky so I ate a salt tablet and it all settled and now I had energy and could go. I also started grabbing bananas which were awesome energy. The loop goes through the small town of LaGrange. It wasn't as neat as I had built up in my head, but it was pretty cool. You go through there so fast because it is basically all down hill so you are flying through there. The next 10 miles or so was either flat or slightly down hill, very few climbs and also were I killed the course. After that starts the very narrow, rolling hill section. This was fun. The back section was also rolling hills, but they were a little bigger. Start of the loop has some fun down hills and some good climbs which I took very easy both times. After I got through LaGrange the 2nd time, I just gunned it for home. I felt great and really took advantage of the down hills. At this time, I still have not stopped to pee on the yet because there was always a line at the potties. I had to pee so bad that I could not ride aero because it hurt. I new I had a good 10 miles until the next aid station. I was not going to make it. I stopped and just squatted along the road and pretended to work on my bike. I was there for 5 min it felt like. Holy cow. The rest of the way home, I passed all the people that I had kind of been "riding with" and was pretty much alone for the rest of the ride. I past a few people on the flat section coming back, but there weren't many other around.
Bike time: 6:28:49 17.3mph Rank: 1423
Goal Time: 7:00
I enter T2, volunteer takes my bike and I start running towards my gear bag. Holy crap, can't run with cleats on so I stop and take them off. I get to my run bag and head for the tent. Yeah, I got my personal volunteer this time. I sat down and she dumped out my bag. She asked me what she can do and I said she could rub my neck and shoulder, jokingly. She said whatever I wanted. I turned her down and said that i wouldn't want to leave then. I put a bandaid on my one toe I knew I would get a blister on, body glided up my feet, pair one on, pair 2 on, shoes on, and change my tri top to a regular sports bar. I changed out of the tri top because those come up higher on my chest and tend to rub and really hurt no mater how much body glide you put on for long race. Dumping enough water on your head washes it away fast. Grab my visor and I am off...to the bathroom. Pee...again. Ok, now I am off.
T2: 7:19
I head out on the course. I feel surprisingly good. I thought I burnt my legs out on the last part of the bike. We have a short section through town and then get to the bridge. There was huge expansion joints on the bridge and I thought to myself as I am running up to one, don't fall and then what do I do, almost twist my ankle. Wow, not walking for 25 more miles. I head off the bridge. Mile 3 was about the start of the loop course. Wow, miles 2 and 3 were at 8:15 pace, that didn't last long and I knew it wasn't going to. Plan was to run in between aid stations and walk the stations. This worked out good. Aid stations slowly got longer and longer. At mile 6, I had to stop at the bathroom very badly. Not peeing this time. Not cool. This continued about every other mile now. Just before the end of the first loop was the run special needs bag. I got mine and sat down with it. I took a couple aleve, rubbed biofreeze on my thighs, rubbed bees wax under my arms, put more bandaids on my toes, I mean blisters, and refilled my salt tablet dispenser. I had another pair of arm warmers in there incase I got cold. I almost took them, but decided not to. I was actually chilly when I would dump water on my head so I stopped doing that and figured I would be fine. At this time I also got to look through what else was in there. I had my friends put items in the bag that they thought I could use for the rest of the run and words of encouragement. This was awesome and some were very funny. Gave me a good laugh. I am sure people were wondering what I was laughing so hard at. I ditched the bag and start off again. By this time, I was not tired yet, but my muscles were sick of vibrating. If I could have had any item that they would have given me at this time, it would have been a compression body suit. Anything to keep my body from vibrating. Quads started first, I could kind of run and hold them a bit, until it moved up to my abs and then my arms. Compression clothes are awesome, I just wish I had some. Mile 14 runs you down the finish roads and then 50 yards from the finish, you turn and head out for the your 2nd lap. wow, that is going to be exciting when I get to really finish. It was the hardest because everyone was like, you are almost done. I was like in 12 miles :) I headed out for lap 2. There was a guy that was running by me through that area. He had to walk so bad, but didn't want to with all those people. I laughed and left him behind when he started walking. It is now mile 15 and I have need to stop again at the potty. Finally I think the upset stomach is gone, now just peeing. No more liquid. The chicken broth had made an appearance at mile 16. Sweet. It was now grapes and chicken broth. the bananas went bye bye at about mile 10 when i ate one and it tasted like what I left at the previous aid station :) Pretzels also tasted mighty fine at this point too. I hate pretzels. I quit eating pretzels because it made me thirsty. Last potty break was at mile 19, Yes! In the mean time, I made it to mile 18 and then had to walk. It now got to a point where, if I could get myself to start running without it hurting, I could run farther. I tried to run 5 min and walk 1 min. I would run about 2 min and walk 45 sec until mile 19. The vibration of my body was what hurt. The Ironman shuffle was very prominent ever from the beginning of my run from several people. I am sure it didn't take long for me to develop it. I continued to run about 3-5 min and walk 30 sec. until mile 22 when I was able to run all of that. I had a hard time in mile 24. I told myself I am running all of 25. I got to 25 and it hurt so bad, but I pushed through it. The crowd really helped. I came down the road, made a left turn and a right turn and headed down the last stretch. I was so excited and the tears started. I could see people finishing ahead of me. No one else was around me. I hit that Ironman carpet for the last 50 yards. I couldn't hold back, I was trying to smile, while almost in tears when I crossed the line and heard "Kelly Kalvelage, you are an Ironman" (I have tears in my eyes as I am reliving this while writing this) I had finished.
Run time: 5:11:52 11:55/mile Rank: 1625
Goal Time: 6 hours
Finish time: 13:33:17
59/87 Age Group W25-29
319/525 Women
1590/2352 Overall
Goal time: 15 hours - try to not get a glow stick.
Guess what? NO GLOW STICK FOR ME!!!!

Immediately a volunteer came up to me, put my finishers metal over my head and wrapped me in that silver blanket thing. It was hot and I did not want it touching me, but she kept wrapping me in it, lol. She walked with me out of the finish area. She asked if I wanted something to drink. My answer: I want a cheeseburger. She said there was food at the convention center and then wanted to know if I wanted a finish photo. She says here is the line. I said I am not waiting in line, I am hungry. She asked if I knew where the center was, I did and then offered to walk with me, but I was ok. I got down there, ate or should I say inhaled 2 slices of pizza. I got my morning clothes bag and put on my long sleeve shirt as I was getting chilly. I slung the bag over my shoulder and just about died right there. That hurt so bad. It was at this time that I realized just pressing a finger on my arm hurt like the devil. Wow, nobody touch me. I headed outside to catch up with a friend that arrived sometime during the run. He gave me a ride to transition and then took off back for Iowa. I got to transition to get my gear bags and bike. I put on my bike shoes and helmet. I got on the bike. Owwwwwwwww.... groin area is not liking this one bit. I force myself to get on and ride back to the hotel, which was directly outside of the finish line. We couldn't have someone bring this stuff there for us? That would have been awesome. I get back to the hotel, get in the elevator to my floor and step out. Cleats are still hard to walk in so I take them off. This the point where I noticed I had a lot of blisters and one in particular was right in the center of the ball of my foot which hurt like hell to step on with bare feet. I stumbled back to my room, threw my gear down and proceeded to make phone calls. Oh my gosh, it was such an incredible day that I will never forget. I will do an Ironman again, there is no doubt in my mind. If you asked me during the run, I probably would have threw my pretzels at you, but now, I want to do it faster :)


Only thing I would do different is put bandaids on before starting the run. Since this was my first marathon, I didn't know what to expect.

Learned: compression would have been nice to have
Overly hydrated causes you to pee...A LOT
Raspberry creme gels are still awesome, tangerine is not
Go to the welcome dinner, it is fun
The days before the race are busy - I will put up another post about the days leading up to the IM
I am slow on the uphills. Need to work on that, but I knew I was :)


Stats from Athlete Tracker (there is discrepancy between the tracker, results online and official text results)

TOTAL SWIM 2.4 mi. (1:38:59) 2:36/100m 1968 1923

FIRST BIKE SEGMENT 22 mi (1:18:41) 16.78 mph
SECOND BIKE SEGMENT 37 mi (56:57) 15.80 mph
THIRD BIKE SEGMENT 67 mi (1:46:17) 16.94 mph
FINAL BIKE SEGMENT 112 mi (2:26:54) 18.38 mph
TOTAL BIKE 112 mi. (6:28:49) 17.28 mph 1572 1525


FIRST RUN SEGMENT 3.38 mi. (30:27) 9:00/mile
SECOND RUN SEGMENT 8.25 mi. (52:28) 10:46/mile
THIRD RUN SEGMENT 13.1 mi. (56:28) 11:38/mile
FOURTH RUN SEGMENT 15.33 mi. (32:27) 14:33/mile
FIFTH RUN SEGMENT 20.19 mi. (1:01:51) 12:43/mile
SIXTH RUN SEGMENT 25.04 mi. (1:04:36) 13:19/mile
FINAL RUN SEGMENT 26.2 mi. (13:35) 11:42/mile
TOTAL RUN 26.2 mi. (5:11:52) 11:54/mile 1590 1546

Kelly Kalvelage...You are an IRONMAN

Those words never sounded so sweet than the very moment you are crossing that finish line after a long and demanding day. 13:33:17 was my overall time. I am excited to get my race report up just as much as you all are waiting for it, but for now I am still soaking in the excitement. Look for the report in the next couple days as I have lots to share.

4 days...

Today is my last day full day in Iowa before the big race. I am taking off tomorrow for Louisville. I could not be more excited to do this race. I am sure as soon as I get there, the nerves will set in. Right now I am more anxious just to get going. Tonight I am dropping my dog off at the kennel, dinner with friends and then spending the night with Rob. I am pretty excited about that too since he has a huge work project to turn around. Tomorrow Rob and I are having breakfast before I am on my way. I have a full schedule Friday and Saturday which will be nice so I am not going crazy over race prep stuff like I have earlier this week. I will do a massive check over my stuff probably Friday and Saturday before equipment drop off to make sure I have everything. It is challenging because I won’t see my run or bike bags until I get them in the race. I have to make sure I have body glide in all of them since I won’t be able to get my bike bag for the run. Just things like that. I just noticed last week I should get my oil changed soon in my car, but wasn’t sure if I would have time to do it. I was able to get squeezed in this morning. Good thing I did because my brake lights weren’t working. I would have never known and that would have not been a good thing to not have when you are driving 8 hours some place. Good thing only the bulbs needed to be replaced. All in all, I am so ready for this race and can’t wait to get out on the course to see what I can do.
Race Goals:
#1: Finish and have fun doing it
#2: Have a great time
Strategy:
Swim: take it easy (which isn't hard for me) but not to easy that I lose track of time
Bike: Slow, Slow, Slow to start. My heart rate tends to be the highest here.
Keep power even on the hills
If I am feeling good and no stomach issues, the last 10 miles I can push it a little bit
gel every 30 min, salt tab every 30 min, 1 water bottle/hour, half bottle of gatorade/hour
Run: Just keep moving
Walk Aid stations, Run inbetween
Gatorade and water at every station, salt every 30 min

Race weather: upper 70s, party sunny, wind 5-10mph. I will take that! Hopefully the ran in the preceeding days goes through quickly to result in a fabulous day!

Question I am going to ask myself several times during the day: Why are you doing this?
Answer: Because I really want the tattoo, haha, just kidding, ok I really do, but mostly to prove that I can be successful in anything I set my mind to and why not!

I am always looking to challenge myself and better myself in anyway that I can. After all, I have an "A" personality :)

Follow me on race day: August 30, 2009 at www.Ironman.com. On the home page will be a link to the athlete tracker. #337!!!!!!!!!

#337

Officially Ironman Louisville Race Participant #337!

Going Strong

I am so happy to be tapering because my body just could not take any more. I was finally able to run Sunday and last night and feel "good". My legs are still a little tired and achy, but not near as bad as they have been. I am doing a 3 week taper. I decided on this last year when I tapered for 1.5 weeks for my half and I was tired during that race. This year I tapered 2 weeks for Kansas and felt great. I also have doubled my workout times since then and decided 3 weeks would be the min. I still did workout 11 hours last week, but it felt like hardly anything. This week I have 7 hours which feels like nothing. I am doing some final lists of stuff I need and then going to start compling my stuff. I have my room lined up, Anubis' "room" reserved, directions and schedule all ready. I can't wait to get going. Workouts this week and up to my race: Monday ran 30 min, tonight: bike 1 hour, tomorrow: swim 45, Thursday: off, Friday: 2 hour bike, 30 min run, Saturday: 45 min - 1.5 hour swim (depends how I feel), Sunday: 1 hour run, 45 min bike, Monday: 30 min swim, 1 hour bike, tuesday: 30 bike, wednesday: 30 min run, off thursday - travel day. Friday I have a million things to do: 30 min swim, check in, I volunteered for a pain focus management group (I get $75 to buy stuff with!), IAMTRI group get-together, race essentials clinic, welcome dinner and mandatory athlete meeting. Also inbetween all that I am going to go to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Bat Factory. Saturday 20 min swim, 20 min bike, 2 mile underpants run for charity then back to my room to get my gear and check in at noon. Then I am relaxing the rest of the day. Hoping to meet a couple friends that evening for dinner from IAMTRI that are coming down to cheer. Sunday is the big race day. It is going to come fast. I feel like I am not ready yet just because I have to get a few things from the store and then gather up everything, clean my bike and check the rest of my gear. I will get most of that done this weekend, then I can relax.

Updates

Couple things that have happened in the last couple days: 1st and most important - Taper time. My taper started Monday, but I did have 1.5 hour bike and a 45 min swim. I bailed on the swim because my neck was sore from biking Sunday. I couldn't turn my head far enough to breathe so that was out. Tuesday I did a 45 min bike and a 35 min run. My body is exhausted. I am going to try to swim for an hour tonight, give or take 15 min. I have been looking forward today since Sunday. Not only because it is finally an easy day, but my bf gets back from vacation :) Tomorrow I am going to swim for 30 min and run for 45 followed by either one or two softball games. It is the final tournament and if we win we play 2 games, but if we lose the first, we are done. Friday: Day off!!! Also I am having my orthotics remade because the left one is not working correctly. My foot does not sit on it correctly in my shoe. The ball of my foot is on the beginning of the arch so every time I step, it slides down and rubs and it burns bad. I have also found out that I have less than 17 hours to finish IMKY. IMKY is unique in that is has a time trial start. In the past, there is one entry point where you wait in a big line and one after another jump in and go. The swim cut off is 2:20 after the last athlete enters the water and the official time ends 17 hours after the last athlete enters the water. This year, there will be 2 entry points for the swim. Same swim cut off except now you have to finish the bike by 5:30 and the race cut off is midnight. so if you start last, say around 7:30 am, you have 16:30 to finish the race. You basically have a shortened bike time. I am not to worried about this, but how many people finish in that last 30 min. Quite a few. So now I am going to have to hurry to get to the swim start in the morning along with everyone else having the same plan now. The reason behind this is what I think is really dumb. Due to permits issued by Louisville and surrounding communities, they have to have the race done by midnight. Really? This isn't a big enough race, and we aren't brining enough money to the city that you can't give us an extra 30 min? Ok. Not going to worry about it because I have no control over this. I am going to race my race and not worry about anything else. 2 weeks from tomorrow I will be on my way to Kentucky. I can't wait.

Downhill from here

Nothing else can make a person more nervous, anxious, excited and scared at once than an email saying the athlete guide is available and race numbers will be assigned soon. I was rushed with all of these emotions when I got that email last week. What I think was funny was I had the guide all printed off before I got the email. What are the chances that within the 30 seconds of posting it and emailing saying it was ready, I checked the website. I think that is a little more obsessive than anything. Hey, what can I say, I am excited. Also in that email was a note saying, if you know you are not participating, let us know so we won't give you a number. My last chance to back out. Nope. I am ready. I just finished up my last build week. I basically have 3 long workouts left. Tonight, tomorrow and Saturday. 20 days left. I finished up this weekend with a 15 mile run Saturday and a 30 min bike on the trainer. It was a great day to "practice" in Kentucky heat. I need to make sure I keep myself cool. Sunday I had a very interesting bike. I started out about 9, biked for an hour when a line of storms had come up on the West. I was about 10 min from Ankeny so I decided to turn back and wait it out at the park there. By the time I had thought that and turned around, it had started raining. I got back to Ankeny and the rain stopped. I checked the weather on my phone and there was another line coming through so I decided to head home and get the rest of my nutrition and head back out. I figured it will be gone by then. I got home, got my gels and headed back up to Ankeny. As I got in Ankeny, it started thundering and lightening so I stopped at the park and waited it out under a shelter. After 10 min it had stopped. There was Another line of storms coming so I thought I could make it up to Big Creek before they arrived. I was wrong. I got 10 min North of Ankeny when the torrential down pour started. It was actually refreshing. I was more concerned about my phone getting wet than anything. It was nice. I made it to Big Creek just in time for it to stop raining. I took sometime to dry out my stuff and packed the bike back up. It started lightening again so I waited about another 5 min. It never stopped raining so I started to head back home. I got 5 min from Big Creek when it started pouring again. I would have kept going, but I was riding directly into the wind and it hurt so I turned back to wait it out at Big Creek. I dried my stuff out again and spent another 30 min there waiting for the storm to clear. It was still thundering out, but I was freezing cold and drenched that I just said screw it and headed home. I got half way home when the sun came out and got sooooooooo hot. I really enjoyed the ride. I just wish it would have been a little less windy when the storms were coming up. That made it dicey. I have started my list of things I need to take. It is no longer a list, but now a book. It is very long and I don't even have non-race stuff on there yet, lol. This is the last week my pool is open so I will need to find another one to swim at next week. Probably have to go to the downtown Y. Hours in the next 3 weeks have dropped off significantly from what I have been doing. I won't know what to do with myself. Maybe I will get some stuff done around the house or maybe turn on that black screen thing in my living room that has pictures on it. It has been a long time.

Just in

I just received confirmation that my shoes have arrived on my door step. Yay, except I won’t wear them running for another week. But they will be fun to look at and transfer my speed laces over to them. Also arriving today are my new Compression sleeves. I am super excited about them. I am going to put them on as soon as they arrive. I will be playing softball until I die tomorrow so I will wear them in between games. The games, I get more beat up than when I just do tri training, but it gives my muscles a little bit of a different workout. My legs have just been so dead this last week and a half and I still have another week left. I really notice that they are tired when I do hills on the bike and they are super tight when I run. I think my body is trying to tell me to not run. I have this pain in the very bottom center of the ball of my foot today that developed when I was sleeping. Great. I am hoping it goes away by tomorrow. I will need to put my orthotics in my cleats tomorrow because those are what kill my feet. If the field was a little bit softer it wouldn’t be so bad. Well my run last night really sucked. It was such a gorgeous day and I felt like shit. My legs were so tight. I spent quite a bit of time before I ran stretching and that helped until I had to run up a hill and then they tightened up and I was miserable. I feel like I am running with two stiff boards. They don’t cramp up, they are just tight. I need someone to give me a massage. I got home and stretched out really good before my softball game. Good thing I did because my first at bat I had an in the park homer that I had to sprint around the bases. My quads gave out after I rounded first but they kicked back in before I fell on my face. I am glad I am not sore, but my body is defiantly screaming for a day off. I think I am going to take next Tuesday off because that seems to be the day I have my horrible workout and I am completely spent. That will recharge me to finish out my last week strong. As much as I would rather be sitting at home eating ice cream and watching a movie, I am going to really miss doing these long workouts. I had the most perfect workout Wednesday night. I got to the pool. Had the whole pool to myself. It was such a great peaceful swim. That hour went by way to fast. I even sat in the hot tub for 5 min. I wish I could have stayed longer, but I needed to get home to do my bike before it got dark. I took off on the bike. It was so nice out, not hot, not windy. Perfect. This was the first time in a while that I was enjoying myself. This is where it hit me that I was really going to miss training for an Ironman. I am sure now that I will do this again. I need to figure out what I am going to do after my race. I need something to train for otherwise I won’t get my butt outside to do anything. I need to have a goal. I wish there was a half IM closer to Des Moines in the spring to do. After all this Ironman thinking, nothing else really seems challenging to me. I am thinking about just focusing on getting fast for the Olympic distance to qualify for nationals at Big Creek next year and actually doing Nationals if I qualify. That might be a lofty goal, but hey, I have a whole year to train for it. It will just be hard to get myself going fast after doing these long easy workouts. I will have to ride with Tribeaner. She kicked my butt on the hills.

Compression Sleeves

I ordered calf compression sleeves this morning. I have been up in the air whether or not this was something that I needed. I have not really had any problems with my legs being sore or crampy until the last 2 weeks. My run yesterday turned into another 25 min run and a 35 min walk. Legs were just tight again. I did get lots of water down so I knew it wasn't dehydration this time. I actually had to pee 2 times on my run. I probably could have run another 10-15 min, but I started to get a bit of an upset stomach so I just walked and wasn't going to suffer through that. I still had the burning feet thing too. I put aquafor on my feet, but that did not help. Going to try this blister powder stuff and hope that helps. New shoes should be here by this weekend so I will get those on next week to start breaking them in. So my crampy legs last night was the deciding factor in ordering the compression sleeves. I am hoping that will help with my recovery in the next week and a half and then get me even more ready for Louisville in 32 days!

Less than 5 weeks

Time is ticking off very fast. I did a final review of my training schedule to fine tune it and compared it to a couple "recommendations" on the last 3 weeks and feel it is right on. I just hope I have done enough up to now. I feel like I don't hardly ever work out anymore. I just found my very first training schedule I wrote 2 years ago for my very first triathlon. My max work out week was 6 hours. Hahahahaha. Oh the days. I use to have a hard time staying on the bike for more than 30 min. Now I can't even get warmed up in 30 min. That is an equipment check.
Last Friday I had a 5.5 hour bike. I was more focused on dealing with the wind because it was windy and super hot. My ride got cut short because I am pretty sure I was developing a bit of heat exhaustion. I got home and jumped in the cold shower. I had a good ride otherwise. Nutrition felt good, I felt good and only a couple times did I curse at the wind, but it was very brief. Saturday no workout. Sunday I ran for 2.5 hours and only got in 15 miles. The combination of new orthotics and socks was causing my feet to be on fire. I would run about 1-2 miles and then the balls of my feet would just be burning so I would have to stop and remove my shoes quick and then go on again. My feet are just sliding around a little to much. I tightened my shoes a bit, but I didn't want to too much because the tops of my feet start hurting when I have my shoes to tight. It was a good run. I jumped on the bike for 30 min after for a quick easy spin. I even felt great for softball later in the day. Monday, I went home after work and grabbed my mountain bike and was going to bike to the pool. One thing I forgot was that I still needed to fix my break from earlier in the year. It still works, but keeps catching so it was scary on the steep down hill. Made it to the pool and swam for 45 min. I feel so slow because I get so tired. After the swim I biked to the grocery store to pick up a few things and then biked home. It was great to get my swim and bike all done in one. I came home and mowed lawn and then reviewed my schedule and started making notes about the course at Louisville. I have a lot of work to do on that yet, but that is what I am planning to use to keep my busy during my taper. I ended up staying up a lot later than I wanted because I was reading the newest Triathlon Life. :) Today I have a 1:15 run. Tomorrow I have an hour swim and 1.5 hour bike. Thursday is an hour run and then softball. Friday I am going to attempt to make it to the pool for a half hour since that is all I can get in now that they are closing it at 6. This weekend is kind of up in the air. I am suppose to play in a softball tournament on Saturday, but not sure if they are going to have enough players so I may not. In that case, I will do my 6 hour bike Saturday and my 2.5 run Sunday. If I play, I will just switch them around and do the run right away Saturday morning. Training is winding down. Perhaps when I am not working out 17 hours a week I will start getting nervous. I hope not. There is just so many things I still need to figure out like how am I going to carry my salt tablets on the run? I need to figure out how many I am going to need too. So many things, but it is a good thing there is a lot because it will keep me focused and busy so I don't start getting anxious. I am starting to get excited again.

OOOO la la

Change of plans last night. I felt like crap leaving work and really did not want to go to the pool. I told myself to suck it up and get your ass in their because you only swim twice a week and you cannot slack on the swim. I was tired, but I went. I get in the pool and didn't really plan out what I was going to do. I figured I would just start swimming and figure it out while I was warming up. I started swimming, kept swimming and kept swimming some more. I decided I was going to swim 2000 yards. Nope, I changed my mind, 3000 yards. I felt so great and smooth that I was willing to give up a bit of the bike tonight in lieu of a great swim. It is not very often I feel like swimming and very rare that I feel like not getting out of the pool. I ended up getting in the laps in 1:05. The pool I swim in is only 21-22 yards so I am not exactly sure if I swam slightly over 3000 yards or slightly under. I just figured each lap was short 3.5 yards and added the extra laps for it. By the end, my face was going to explode. How do you keep your face from building up so much pressure? I need to figure that out. After my swim, I headed home and had a bowl of oatmeal and then headed out on the bike. I only got in 1.5 hours because the sun was almost set and people can't drive. I started out on the bike and went up a very short, not steep hill by my house and I about died. My legs were soooooooooooooooo tired. I didn't think I was going to go longer than 20 min. I kept going. I couldn't hardly get going so I decided I would just take it easy and spin my legs out more to get them ready for Friday. By the time I got to 15 min, I had forgot my legs were tired and was back up to normal speed. I headed up through Ankeny and then back home. At the turn around, I really wanted to be home. Good thing that that is where that thought came up so I couldn't turn back early. I was going to have to make the entire trip. I am trying to work on the mental part of these long bikes. I need to not think about the time and just enjoy the ride and focus on form. I got home at 8:30. I get heartburn really bad if I eat after 8 so I could only eat something very light. Bowl of corn flakes. Blah. showered and then turned on a baseball game and started one of the books I got at the library today. "How to stop worrying and start living". It is pretty good so far. I started the other book "the secret" and left it at work to read during lunch. That one is kind of slow because it really only has one point to make and it just keeps giving examples of it. Ok I get it, move on. Hopefully it will expand its point a little more. Tonight I am going to do my "loop of pain" on the bike. It really isn't. It encompasses the 6 hills that are by where I live. There is 2 short quick hills, 3 long gradual hills, and 1 really steep hill that just kills me. I wish I had more time to do repeats on it. I will try to work that in several times in in the next couple weeks. Then I will do a short easy run after before my game. Tomorrow is going to be a tough day. It is suppose to be windier (10-15 mph wind) and hotter than it has been plus a chance of rain. It will really test my mental toughness.

Starting to freak out

This last week I am starting to freak out about my training. I feel like I haven't done enough and I have just about run out of time. I am going to push these last 3 weeks and hope that I have done enough to get me through. I have picked up a couple books about not worrying about things I don't have control over, but I have invested so much time, how can you not worry. Augh. I finally realize this past Sunday that this Ironman is going to be hard. I did a 2.5 Bike/1.5 run/1.5 Bike/30 Run. I was exhausted after that. That is only about half of what I need to do and add a swim on top of that. I wish I could have another 4 weeks to train. I have 2 6.5 hour bikes, 1 5.5 hour bike and 3 2.5 hour runs left along with my normal during the week workouts then taper time. The time is coming up so fast. I can almost smell the Ohio.
Update on the foot: I got my orthotics last Thursday. I ran 45 min on them Thursday night and felt really good. No pain and most importantly, no pain the next day. I ran again Sunday for my 2 hour run. Stupid me, I didn't wear socks so I have a huge blister in the arch of my foot. That skin is not use to having anything touch it. The run went good. I attempted to run again last night, but my job distracted me from drinking water all day so I was very tight and crampy for the run. I ended up only running for 20 min and walking for 40. My legs felt very heavy. I am sure there was some fatigue from Sunday, but it didn't feel like it normally does. I am sure I was tired, but the no water thing really hurt. Tonight I am getting in the pool for an hour and a 2 hour bike to follow. Tomorrow a 30 bike/30 run followed by a softball game. I am doing my long bike Friday since I will be out of town and not able to do it Saturday so that will be my day off. I will be eating very bad food all day at the family reunion. Yum! Sunday a 2.5 hour run. Probably will break it up into a 1.5 hour run/30-60 bike/1 hour run.

How can someone so fast get faster?

I completed my 100 mile bike ride in 5:15. Yes! I was so pumped. That will equate to a sub hour bike for an ironman, except now I need to figure out how to make Louisville flat. lol. Because I did not have any "real" hills on this ride. I actually felt really good on this ride the entire time. My neck started bothering me, but it never got to the point where it was painful. I was super pumped about doing the Ironman now, until I opened up my blog and saw there was only 48 days left. Augh. I am super nervous now. Scared mostly on how the day is going to go and knowing that I am going to be in pain and it is going to hurt like hell. I just saw that Chrissie Wellington finished Challenge Roth this weekend in 8:31:59! New world record for an ironman distance. That is so insane. She is so fast. How does she keep getting faster and faster? A 4:40 bike for the new record too. Wow is all I can say. Wow!
My training has brought me to this week. This will be my longest hours of training for my entire Ironman training. 19 Hours for the week. I am hoping to get all of these hours in. My foot has been "up in the air" the last week and I have been more nervous about running on it than I really should have been. I am hoping to get in some good mileage running this week to get my going again. This last weekend wiped me out. It was so much fun. When you try to squeeze in lots of fun, sleep tends to be the thing that gets shorted. I was kind of looking forward to working today just to get some structure/routine back. But it was a super great weekend.

Century Ride

Tomorrow about this time I will be a memeber of the century club. I have my first ever century ride tomorrow. I am excited to do this ride, but I know when I am doing it, I will hate it and want to quit. I need to really work on pushing myself through hard to finish what I need to. Anyway, I am tired today. Had my first summer session softball game last night. We have moved up to the "B" league. I will definately say the guys hit the ball a lot harder in this league and the girls actually hit the ball. I like the more challenging competition. Had a great game. Got hit in the shin with a ball. It hurts a lot today. Relaxing tonight to get ready for tomorrow's big ride.

Absent

I have been absent from my blog for about a week now. I have been very, very busy. This week will not be much different. Couple highlights of last week. Swam for 45 min straight Wednesday, Biked 4.5 hours Friday and another 4 hours Saturday morning. Thanks TriBeaner for keeping me going. I wanted to quit many times. Thursday I was able to run for an hour. No running since then because my foot, once again, has decided to give me problems. I am going to the doctor today to talk about the possibility of getting custom orthotics. I have been doing a lot of research and believe that a person with my foot type will benefit greatly from orthotics. I am hoping it will eliminate these random problems. I attempted to run yesterday morning. I ran for 3 min before the top of my foot cramped up. It finally "released" and then I was left with a sore tendon. The metatarsalgia is still present. It comes and goes. Monday of this week I swam for 45 min and then had a 1:45 bike. Tonight I am going to attempt to swim for an hour with a 1.5 hour bike. I have a feeling I am going to be exhausted tonight so it might end up me just floating in the pool. Tomorrow is the first game of softball for the summer session. I am excited. Keeps things exciting and not just doing triathlon specific workouts. Well that is all for now. If I remember I will update you on the foot orthotic situation.

Hyvee Race Report

It has only taken me a week and a half to get this up and I just stole it from my Register blog instead of writing a new one. Basically I just want to forget about it and move on because it wasn't an A race for me, things went wrong, but there were things that went right. So anyway...

Hyvee Triathlon Finish: 2:48:09 12/73 Age Group 104/418 WomenSwim 37:20 T1: 1:11 Bike: 1:15:29 T2: :59 Run: 53:14Am I happy? No. Why am I not happy? I don't know. Looking at my times, I should be very happy, but why am I not. I had a very disappointing swim. I contribute 80% of that to my start. I had a great starting spot. Right behind one girl on the right center. I started a little further to the right last year and had a great start so my plan was to do the same. I was to far to the center and I got hammered. After about 20 meters into the swim girls kept hitting my legs so I just could not get going therefore they all swam over top of me. I tried to make my way to the right further to get out of the mess, but there was just to many people to my right. All the way to the first buoy was horrible. When I got to the first buoy, it got worse. Since I was right up next to it, I got hammered again and even panicked a little bit. It was the first time ever I had considered stopping to let the crowd pass, but I kept at it. I went around the buoy and made my way almost off course to the way inside since everyone else had kind of went out wide. The traffic cleared up, but to much so now I did not have a draft. I started to make my way over behind another girl, but she could not swim straight for anything. She was running into people all the time so I decided to abandon her and just swim my line and wait for someone else to pass and jump in behind them. Well no one else had passed until the last turn where it got a little crazy again. I swung out wide to avoid the mess. I started getting into some heavy traffic from the 2 waves in front of me. Spent most of my time navigating around them and not really swimming. I felt really good on the swim and was relaxed, most of the time. I knew I had been in the water longer than I wanted, but did not expect what my watch read when I finished. 8 min way to long. I was going to have to make up serious time to meet my 2:40 goal. In and out of transition. I love transition. Out on the bike. It was great. It was flat and very fast. I just went hard. I had expected the wind to be more of a factor, but I really didn't feel it so then I thought maybe it isn't out of the West. I got to the turn and nope the wind was behind me. Awesome! I flew. There was not one person I passed that I didn't just fly by. It was great. Gave me a lot of confidence. Coming into T2, I was unsure of how my legs would feel because of how hard I pushed the bike. I jumped off my bike and ran through T2. Calf almost cramped up. I put on my shoes and went off on the run. I felt pretty good. Stomach was a little upset, but forced myself to throw up before the second aid station and that made me feel so much better. No mile markers so I wasn't sure of my pace which was tough because if I needed to pick it up, I wouldn't know. I got to about 5km and finally my legs had completely loosened up and I could push it a little more. I need to do more bricks to get my legs going a little earlier. I had a great run. The hills were big, but I just focused on keeping my knees up and my cadence quick. Having not run any hills for about 3 months, I was very surprised at my run time. I will take what I have learned from this race and keep improving. I will come back stronger next year. Each day I am realizing I should be happy and each day I am becoming more pleased with my progress. I want to thank the DSM Register for the opportunity to share my training with everyone and send out my congratulations to all the athletes.I will change my focus to my training for Ironman Louisville August 30th of this year. I will continue to focus on my running because I feel I can improve in that "easier" than I can with my swim. Swimming is so technical that it can take a couple years to drop a couple min off your time. The run, I should be able to drop a good min off my 10k pace by the end of this year to be back to where I was last year. I need to continue to work on my nutrition. Still having major GI issues and heartburn pretty bad. I am finding that this extreme endurance training is wreaking havoc on my body big time. All in all, I love triathlon more everyday and will continue to push my body to its extreme to see what I can really do.

Hyvee Triathlon

Race report to follow in the following days. I need to evaluate somethings about it and work on accepting the fact that I did not do as bad as I am playing it up in my head.

Who determines these swim waves?

I have one thing to complain about. Swim wave times at Hyvee this weekend. Female under 29: 6:48 am. Transition closes at 5:45. What am I suppose to do for an hour? I have thought of several things. Take a nap, go out for breakfast, hang out in the beer garden. But the one I have chosen is to time my warm up to end exactly at 5:45, put my shoes in transition, get out of transition, stretch. By the time I am done doing that, the first people will be out of the water. This is a unique opportunity because now I can watch how the elite group do their transitions and maybe pick up a few things that could help me out. Normally I would be swimming still so you never get to see these guys/girls. Since these will be the people winning my age group, it couldn't hurt to learn from them. Also by the time my wave goes off, some people might be finishing. lol. Just kidding. Almost will get to see them come back in from the bike to run. So by the time I am done, all the food will be gone and I will have to wait 2 hours for a massage. Hmmm...that sucks. Oh well, what can ya do? I am heading out to the lake tonight for a swim. I was debating about whether or not I needed to get in the water without my wetsuit. I am pretty sure I will be fine, but it can't hurt to get out there and swim just to make sure so I won't have that tiny bit of doubt. And when else are you going to get out and be able to swim an hour with a life guard in open water? Not very often. This will be nice. Last couple days' workouts: Monday: 30 min swim because the pool water was 96 degrees. Hot tub water: 101 degress. Hmmm...little warm don't ya think. I about passed out so I decided it was time to get out. Tuesday: 45 min run in am. It was hot! Wednesday: 30 min bike this morning and an hour swim tonight. Thursday: 30 min run am and 2 hour bike after work. Friday: off. Picking up my packet, going to Rob's softball game and then to the Icubs. That is the plan anyway. Rain could alter these. Saturday: 45 bike and 30 min run. Equipment check and gather it up. Clean up bike and take to bike check in. Try to get to bed early(ish). Probably getting up at 3:30 Sunday. Going to braid my hair which will take the most time. Also wanting to get to the race sight so I get a good parking spot. the DSMtri club has special closer parking. So I want to get there probably around 4:45-5 just to make sure I get a spot there.

Going for broke

I have been doing tons of research online all weekend and think I have narrowed down my stomach issue. I think I need more sodium. Clue #1: I feel that I am eating and drinking enough, it is just taking my body forever to want to absorb it. Clue #2: I believe I get Hyponatremia (the nausea, fatigue, vomiting, sleepiness are hints to this), Clue #3: I have been relying on gels for my electrolytes. I ordered salt stick caps today. I also found a place where it talks about salt. My thought was why can't I just eat salt? It will become unpalatable and I need the other 4 - potassium, magnesium, calcium, and chloride. I am hoping that this is my problem and I can get this worked out in the next couple weeks. I have been doing some "water" tests the last couple days. Weighing myself before and after working out so I know exactly how much fluid and sodium I am going to need. The hot humid conditions are definately how Louisville is going to be. I ran 10 miles yesterday. Stupid me, I forgot to put the insoles back in my shoes. You have to ask how does one forget to do this? It was simple. I had a one track mind of get out and run and try not to die. Last time I went running, when I took my feet out, the insoles came out so I was going to let them dry and glue them in. Well I forgot to put them back in. No wonder they felt so big. I just thought my feet hadn't swollen up yet. I did get a small sore on the side of my foot just below my ankle. I am sure I would have gotten that with the insoles. The bottoms of my feet got a little "hot" at mile 8, but no blisters. Thank goodness. Tonight I am going to the pool and then staying inside on the bike tonight. In the "ac". Might have to turn it down a bit and put all the fans on I have. Running tomorrow morning and then I have tomorrow night off. Can't wait for Hyvee to be over. I just hate all the "stuff" you have to do before the race. Packet pickup, athlete briefings, bike check in, but I am still excited to do it. I love the races. It is what keeps me motivated. Right now I am not planning on doing Big Creek just because it falls on my last big weekend before Louisville. I have a 7 hour bike Saturday and I will be wiped out for the race Sunday. Might throw in Iowa Games or Hickory Grove if I need something to do. Well back to the training.

4:50 Bike Hurt

I have been home now for about 20 min from my 4:50 bike. It was a good ride and it was a bad ride. First the bad. I am really starting to question my sanity, if I had any to begin with. Why am I doing this? The longest bike I had yet, and it killed me. I made 80 miles in 4.5 hours and then did a slow cool down around the neighborhood. I guess I wasn't really tired, my legs just hurt and my saddle region was screaming. It would have been better if I was able to stay aero and be comfortable because then my legs stopped hurting when I was down. I had to sit up a lot the last hour. I will get to that in a bit. My quads are what was yelling the loudest. Oh man. I am still struggling with my nutrition. I will elaborate more in a second. If I had to add any hills today, I think I would have just died. Ok onto the good: I did ride 80+ miles today. I have figured out that being in the aero position is a start to my nutrition problem. I started having stomach problems today right at 1:15, when I have the other times as well. I found that after 5-6 min of taking a gel is when my stomach reacts to it. I started sitting up after 4-5 min and sitting up for 5 min and then going aero again. This worked really well until after 3.5 hours. I started to have to sit up longer before I felt better, but by the time I could feel it settling in my stomach, it was time to eat again. Ugh. I did not have a strong urge to throw up, but it was on the way. By 4 hours I wanted to throw every gel I had at passing vehicles. I was getting upset. Just then, my boyfriend text me and I asked him why I was doing this and he said "because you are awesome". That really helped get me through the last miles. I will have to plant signs and pictures of him around the course that I can read to keep me motivated. Today I also tried Elite. Um...no reaction to it, I guess. I liked the salty taste it left on my lips when I ripped open the packet. This got me thinking that I do need more salt. Would it be weird to just carry a salt shaker around. Then I passed Casey's and thought, I should stop in there and see if they have those little salt packets. Hmmmmm....this could work. Well I didn't stop because I wanted to get home so bad. I did stop about half way on the bike to pee and right when I got home so I feel I was not dehydrated. This problem is driving me nuts. The upset stomach was what was causing me to sit up longer, which was brutal. Today, even the light 5-10 mph wind out of the West was pissing me off. I try not to think about it because it takes so much energy to be pissed at something you can't control. I also decided I would rather do a hilly course than have a flat windy one. I discovered today that the old Lincoln Highway between Ames and Nevada has a bike lane. That was sweet. Today I was also very tempted to eat the nats that were stuck to my arm. I could have eaten for 2 days with all of them. Gross. I also got sunburned on my forehead where the vents are in my helmet. So I have 2 red vertical marks there. Great. Good thing my hair will cover it up, hopefully. I did not get burned anywhere else other than my face. That was where I put the most sunscreen. So maybe less is more? Or mostly I just sweated it all off. I also think I have figured out why people in their 60s still feel like they are in their 20s. Because I feel like I am 60 years old today. So when I am 60, I will remember that I felt like this in my 20s and it will be the same :) At the rate I am going, I hope I make to 60. Geez. Thursday morning I ran 45 min the morning and then biked for an hour after work. I went on the trail that heads up to Big Creek. I couldnt remember why I don't like that trail, and then I remembered. Holy Crap, that trail is in horrible shape. I think I had more water on me than I did in my water bottle. I lost the straw and sponge from my aero bottle about 5 times and then I just took it out and held it in my hand. It was so stupid. On the way back I took the road. Never riding that trail ever again. Well, maybe if I had a full suspension mountain bike. People are insane to ride on it. Friday was my day off. Well kind of. I hadn't mowed lawn in 2 weeks now so I figured I would do that last night. hahaha. it sucked. First off, the grass is about a foot tall, second it is really think because I over seeded it this year and third, it was very wet. So my normal 20 min mow turned into a 30 min mow plus another 20 to rake. I never even got the front mowed. Ugh. I was dripping wet so I came in and showered. Took a short nap and then went out for a couple drinks with some friends. So maybe sometime today I can get the rest mowed. I need to hire someone to do my yard work because the weeds are taking over my raspberries and rubarb. Tomorrow I am going to attempt a 1.5 hour run and a short 30 min bike after. Might have to take the mountain bike so I am not sitting on the same place as I was today. Decided I am not going to do much of a taper this week for Hyvee. Probably will take Tuesday night off and Friday and only do a short bike/run Saturday before dropping off my bike. I like the excitement of Hyvee, I had the logistics of it. The mandatory meetings, registration, the expo, bike check in, race morning chip pick up and marking, the parking. It just goes on. I liked Kansas because you could get so much done the day before and get it all done in one swoop because it was all at the race site and I didn't have to drive 30 min across town to get there. The traffic much better too because busy roads were NOT closed. I am going to crash on the couch. I just found a fucking cockroach in my spare bedroom. Holy fuck I am going to burn down my house to get rid of these bugs. The ants have discovered last night where I feed my dog so they were all over his food bowl this morning. I had to spray it to kill them because there was literally a hundred ants on it. So I filled up his water and set it on the floor while I cleaned his stand. When I set his bowl on the floor he looked at me like, you want me to eat off the floor? But I am a God. I said you stuck up little monkey, lol. Just eat. I cleaned up his stand and then put his food and water dish back on it, then he came over and ate. Spoiled rotten. He is now laying spralled all over my bed so I have to sleep on the couch. At least I get the big tv then, lol.

Nutrition Help

I am still struggling on this 4th disipline of nutrition. I need help. Here is my background of things I have tried. Last year, I trained with a powerade mixture that I mixed. In races I used gels. My HIM last year, I double mixed the powerade in my aero bottle and planned to drink half of it and then fill it up with water and drink the rest, gels to fill out the other calories. Bad idea. By mile 20 I was starting to burp and then around mile 25 I threw up. I could not keep anything down the rest of the bike. Not even water. I would drink it, and then I would burp and it would come right back up. Felt better on the run. Took gels and drank a lot of water. Ended up being pretty dehydrated after the race. This later year, I have been training with gels and water only. Been taking about 2.5 gels an hour and 1-1.5 bottles of water an hour. It has worked really good on my training rides. I did try the Zym tablets you put in your water, but on a training ride I got a really bad stomach ache. Kansas HIM I had water and gels. I had 3 gels before the start of the race with a bottle of water. First 20 of the bike, went through 1 bottle of water and 2 gels. I was taking 1 gel every 25 min. Shortly after mile 20, I felt like I was running out of energy so I took another gel at 20 min. I started burping and then followed that up with my stomach hurting. The "I am on the verge of needing to puke" that is how the whole day my stomach felt. I kept eating a gel every 25 min and drinking 1+ bottle an hour. I felt a little better after I took a gel, but that didn't last real long. On the run I switched over to the gatorade and water only. Drank 1-2 cups of each at each aid station. This got me through, but my stomach never got any better until I stopped running. Then it was fine. I do not think I was dehydrated at all because I peed about 10 times after the race and urine was still pretty clear. I am not sure what is out there that I should try. I like not having a sports drink and just using the gels, but maybe a salt tablet or something. Will that help? My HR on the bike was a little higher than I normally bike at so could that have made a difference. It was at 80% instead of 74% So I slowed the second 20 to get it under 75% thinking that would help, but never felt any better so I just kicked it up again and went. Overall, I never felt low on energy or thirsty. I just wanted to stop eating and drinking. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

How can you afford this?

Today I realized that Ironman training is expensive, but not for the reason you think. Yes, equipment, race fees and travel are a lot, but the most expensive is the area you don't think about. Food. Holy crap. Just my training nutrition is burning a hole in my pocket. I have gone through 48 gels in the last 3 weeks. I just ordered 48 more. I should have started collecting them in the race on Sunday, then I could have a lot of them right now. lol. Then on top of that, I have to buy regular food. My last resort is what I eat almost every night. Oatmeal. It is cheap and quick to make. I have gone through an entire canister in the last month. It seems like I never have any food at home because once I do buy food, it is gone in 3 days. I need to set up automatic delivery or something because who really has time to go grocery shopping 3 days a week. I have definately seen a huge increase in my food budget these past few months, but more so this last month with the huge increase in training time. I can't imagine how next month will be. August won't be as bad, I hope, because I will be tapering for most of the month. I will have to take some time off of training just so I can save money on food, lol. Maybe I should pick up a second job to cover it, lol. All this talk about food is making me hungry. Darn it.

Kansas 70.3 Race Report

This morning I am back to normal. I woke up starving and tired. I am surprisingly not that sore. A little stiff in some weird areas. My knees (more specifically my acl area) are stiff and my butt is sore. But those 2 areas make it tough to walk, lol. Well lets get started with the weekend:

Friday:
I spent Friday trying to relax. I got off work and went to the pool for a 20 min swim. Mostly to test my new goggles and my new ear plugs. I decided that I wasn't going to wear the ear plugs yet because I felt like they were going to get knocked out. I sat in the hot tub for awhile trying to loosen up my shoulder so the headache I have been having since Wednesday would go away. Got home and gathered up my gear and tried to get to bed early. Ended up laying on the couch running through all my gear mentally because I was sure I forgot something. Went to bed about 10. Not to bad, but a little later than I wanted.

Saturday:
Got up at 6:30. Had breakfast and packed the car. I was off at 7:45. Dropped my dog off at the kennel and headed for Clinton State Park, just West of Lawrence. Very foggy day. I needed the sun just to get pumped about the race. My stomach was in knots the whole way down. I tried to drink as much as I could all day to stay hydrated. I arrived at the race site at 11:45 and parked. Walked the 1/2 mile to registration/T2 and then walked another 1/2 mile to T1 to check my bike in. It was exciting that we were able to get body marked on Saturday so that was one last thing I had to worry about race morning. The distance between the transition areas changed my race morning strategy. I went to rack my bike by the seat, but it was flopping in the wind so bad I had to rack it by the handle bars which took up 3 spots. Later I was lucky to find out that those 2 people did not show up anyway. After checking in my bike I went up to the first athlete meeting. Waste of time. They didn't talk about anything that I didn't know, but man people had some stupid questions. For example: If we are doing a relay, does the runner have to be there at the start of the race? Really people. How lazy is this runner that they can't be there to cheer on their teammates and everyone else doing the race. If I was the swimmer in that relay, I would leave before their run then :P hahaha. No I wouldn't, they had beer there. :) After the meeting, I headed to Amy's campsite. She is a triathlete I met on iamtri. I will be meeting several more of these people after the 2nd athlete meeting. I stayed at her campsite until about 3:30 and we walked up to the expo area to wait for the pros to be finished up with their meeting. Pros got out, I met Tim Deboom and I got Chrissy Wellington to sign my swim cap. She is amazing. She does not have an ounce of body fat on her. After that race we waited for the 2nd athlete meeting to finish up and met several other folks from iamtri. Most of us went out for dinner. Everyone had such a fun story. It was great to meet all these people that you talk with online and probably will never meet again. There was a small group from Pittsburg all the was to Los Angeles. After the dinner, Amy and I headed to our getto hotel. It really wasn't to bad until you walked into the bathroom. It looked like no one had cleaned in there for years. There was even one of those non slip mats in there. Gross. Can't imagine what the underside of that looked like. The curtain looked brand new though :) Amy and I talked about the race and checked our equipment and hit the hay about 8. Well Amy did, I watched the baseball college world series until about 9 then I went to sleep.

Sunday: Race Day:
Woke at 3:45 am. Immediatly turned on the weather because it was suppose to rain. Great huge storm headed right for us, with a lot of rain following. Ugh. I hurried up to get dressed, covered myself in sunscreen and was out the door at 4:15. I wanted to get to the site and get my stuff all set up before it rained. Transition opened at 4:45. I got to the race parking shortly after 4:30 and walked to T2 to drop off my running stuff. I put my run stuff in a plastic bag because I was not going to start with wet shoes. I threw all the stuff I needed for the swim and bike in my gatorade bag and left the rest of my stuff at T2. Walked down to T1. First thing for me was to get my tires pumped up. I did not bring a pump because you had to be able to fit all your stuff in this gatorade bag or it wasn't going to be brought up to T2 for you and you had to go back down and get it. I was not going to feel like doing that. I got the tires pumped up, set up my area and drank another bottle of water. I sucked down some gels because I kind of felt like eating and I figured I better do that now while I still felt like eating something. I got 3 down before the start of the race which was what I wanted so I was happy with that. I was all ready to go by 6am. I walked around transition checking out people's bikes because I love looking at bikes. I found some of the iamtri folks and talked to them for a bit. At 6:15 I got all body glided up and put on my wetsuit and headed to the swim start to watch the pros off. By this time, My stomach was in knots again, I wanted to throw up and wanted to go back to bed.
Swim: 40:37 Goal: 45 min
My wave was off at 6:50 so I didnt have to long to wait until I went. It was a water start so you had to tread water for about 4 min. Thank god we had wetsuits because I cannot tread water. It was so hard because everyone was kicking their legs all crazy and arms were flailing about. This was before the start of the swim. Gun went off. Holy crap it was crazy and there wasn't that many in my wave (18-29 women) Could not imagine any more people. We took off. I spent the first 300 yards fighting off people and trying to find a good draft. It was good until just before the first turn when the wave behind me started catching me. (men 40-44) They were so violent. I got kicked in the face for the first time ever because of those assholes. I also got raped for the first time too. 4 times to be exact on that swim, holy hell. There would be a group of about 3-4 guys that would just swim right over me. Really? There isn't enough room to go around. Geez. The end of the swim was crazy. It felt like I was in a washing machine. The water was so rough. We ended in between to docks and you walked up the boat ramp. Everyone stopped at the end of the docks. I was like get the hell out of my way. They only had carpet on 1/2 of the dock which was retarded. I looked at my watch 40:45. Awesome! I was way under my goal of 45 min so that gave me some extra adrenaline for the bike. There was no way I was going to beat 6 hours if my swim was to much longer than 45 min. I just felt really smooth and relaxed. I think it was because I was able to catch a draft for a good 1/2 of the swim.
T1: 1:53
My bike was racked at the end by the swim exit so I didn't have far to go. I put my goggles, cap and wetsuit into that tiny ass bag and grabbed my bike. There was so many tiny rocks and crap. It was painful. It was also very crowded and this stupid guy was just walking right down the middle of the aisle. I was like get the fuck out of the way dude. Finally he stopped and I ran past him and out to the mount line. I was surprised that my time wasn't longer. Felt like it took me 5 min to get out of there.
Bike: 2:57:43 (18.9 mph) Goal: 3 hours
I hop on my bike, but one of my shoes flipped upside down so I figured I would just go and spin it back around. Nope. Shoe hit the ground and I about wiped out. Had to stop to get it turned around. Ok, now I am off. I knew I was going to have to hit the bike hard because this was going to have to absorb my transition times and my extra run time to beat 6 hours. The first part of the bike was with the light wind so that helped a little, but not a lot. I felt really great. I hammered the first 20 miles. My HR was about 7 beats higher than I wanted, but I figured it would come down after awhile. This was just because I was so excited to get going. Nope, I had a hard time getting it to come down. By mile 20 my stomach was getting upset. Great. This is what happened to me last year in my HIM. I ended up not being able to keep anything down the last 2 hours of the bike which made it very miserable. This time I slowed down and kept drinking water. I kept eating the gels as planned. I started burping a bit, but it all stayed down, thank god. This year I eliminated any other liquid than water. Everything else gave me an upset stomach. Well upset more than it was. I had a 21 mph ave after the first 20 then it started slipping in the next 20 because I felt like crap. Mile 40 came up and I knew the next 10 miles were almost all downhill so I picked it up again. Mile 50 was half way up the huge hill and I knew there was only 1 more big hill left and 2 short steep hills in the park. I also realized at mile 50 I could still make 3 hours. This pumped me up and I gunned it for home. I quickly looked at my watch. Just under 3 hours, YES!
T2: 1:41
I got off my bike and ran through T2, well for about 10 steps then my calves gave me a hollar. I did not want them to tighten up or I was going to be screwed. I walked a bit, mostly because people were in my way and I was all the way to the other end. I got to my rack, dumped out my stuff. Almost forgot to put my socks on. Geez, that would have been bad. I hate socks. Grapped my visor and belt and was off.
Run: 2:01:01 9:14 pace Goal: 2:15
Oh I felt like I was going to be hurting, but I wasn't. I actually felt really good. Awesome. I wasn't going to push myself at all and just run comfortably because I haven't run more than 6 miles in 3 months. I was also very cautious of any pain that could arise in my foot. Before I knew it I was at the first aid station. I grabbed some water and gatorade. I love those sponges. I was going to make sure I got one of those at every station. The miles actually went by fast because I was thinking about how crappy my stomach felt and what I was going to get at the next aid station. Those came up way to fast because I did not want anything. I always grabbed atleast one water and one gatorade since I was not going to eat any more gels. Just before mile 3/10 (2 lap course) was the only hill. It was steep enough that I wasn't even going to waste my energy trying to run it. The first pass I had to walk backwards up it because my calves tightened up. The run went by so fast. I was able to keep either a 8:45 or a 9:15 pace. I was very surprised at that. I thought, yes, keep this up and you will make your 6 hours. I did not realize how far under 6 hours I could finish until I was at mile 7. I actually felt a goal of 6 hours was going to be a huge task ahead of me for how prepared I felt. Mile 7 also brought 3 girls in my age group to pass me. Grrr... I was not even going to try to keep up with them. There was so much race left. I got to mile 8 and was at 4:55 on my watch. Alright if I can keep a 10 min pace, I can finish in 5:45. Yes how cool would that be. So now at mile 10, I could see 2 of those girls. One had started walking, YES. I can catch her. I just kept at my pace and it slowly ate away at theirs. I passed girl 1 just before mile 11. Girl 2 was about 60 feet in front of me. I got to mile 12 and decided I had enough left to pick up the pace. I went for it. I knew I had to pass her early enough that she would not try to keep up with me and out sprint me at the end. She didn't even try. Ok this is great. At 12.5, I was just about to back off my pace, when another girl in my age group was right in front of me. Awesome, I am going for it. I kept the pace up until the finish. Coming down the shoot I turned around to make sure she wasn't there then jogged it in. Oh my gosh, I was so excited to finish. From the times last year, that would have put me in the top 10 in my age group. Not this year. That got me 23rd. Really. That was sad to find out, but I was so happy with my time. I ended up running a pr in the half marathon with a 2:01:01. That is a 9:14 pace. Wow. That was my pace at the last olympic. I need to learn how to run faster at shorter distances, lol.

Final time: 5:42:55 PR by 43 min!

Summary:
Things I learned:
Do not get your shoes wet. I got water in mine at mile 3 and it was horrible. The bottoms of my feet burned so bad. I don't have any blisters but man they burned. I am sure it is because my feet have 2 inches of thick callusted skin on them from never wearing socks that saved me. I need to work on getting my stomach ready to accept food at the pace I want to go. After all of that, I am dissapointed with my bike time. Well the middle 20. A massage after a race is awesome. Beer after a race tastes very yummy, but water does not. A very cold sponge on a hot day takes your breath away. My wheel hypnotises people. Even though I was starving after the race, I did not want to put food in my mouth which made for a miserable night. Getting kicked in the face hurts. Even though the guy in the wheel chair is flying past you on the downhill in the run, he does not have an advantage over you. He is just awesome. Be sure when you grab a water, you know if there is ice in it or not because you could choke on it. Very dangerous.

Now that this race is over, I will work out my aches in the next couple days and get ready for Hyvee in less than 2 weeks now. Need to get my derailer fixed. It wanted to jump gears a bit. I am also highly considering a massage. Oh yes, a massage. But right now I am burnt and don't want anyone to touch me. They could work on my butt because that is not burnt and that is the place that needs the most work. :)

Pure Awesomeness

Ironman Kansas 70.3 was awesome. The awesome details to follow in the next couple days because right now, I need to get something to eat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ready!

Tomorrow I leave for Lawrence, Kansas for Kansas 70.3. I am ready, well after I pack my bags tonight :) I did an hour bike last night and a 20 min run. I felt very loose and relaxed. I hope I don't get tensed up from driving tomorrow. I need to recruit someone to give me a massage Saturday night. I will just cover myself in icyhot. It will be awesome. Goal for this race is time only. I want to PR my HIM. Shooting for under 6 hours. I am hoping the rain holds off, or atleast the storms.

Taking a risk

My worst fear has come back to haunt me. My foot is showing signs that it wants to develop yet another stress fracture. AUGH. The tendons in my foot are tired and sore, which is exactly how my foot felt before. I ran last Thursday for 3 miles and it was really starting to get bad so I stopped. I haven't run since then until this morning. I ran about 4 min. Yes, that is 4 mins. The pain is not there, but that feeling before the pain comes was. I am very nervous now about Sunday that I will really mess it up. Only Planning a very short run Thursday just to get my legs ready. Probably will only be about 5 min. Just enough to get a sweat started so I can stretch out really good. Did a 30 min swim last night. The pain I have had in my arm is finally gone so last nights swim was nice. I am not sure what is causing that pain. I thought it was from swimming so I did a shorter than planned swim to see how I would feel today and there is no signs of stiffness. My arm still gets tired when I swim and that is just because I am not use to swimming with a "better" form. Taking the bike out Thursday night for a final equipment check and then packing everything. I need to get to the LBS to get a new tire. Yes, a tire. I was changing the tire I had on my 808 to my disc so I had the same tires on the wheels I am going to race on Sunday and put the other one on my 808. Got it on the wheel and started pumping it up. What is that noise? Yes, there was a hole about an 1/8" long and 1/16" wide. Not a small hole. So that tire is shot and need to get a new one. I am also going to pick up another pair of Tyr Nest Pro goggles. I love these goggles. Other than that I am taking it pretty easy this week. It has been nice. I could get use to this, which is a big problem since I need to push these last 11 weeks. Well, I could take a nap right now. The 11 hours of sleep last night apparently weren't enough. Geez. lol.